The Eternal Series Box 1: An Eternal Universe Box Set

by Candy Crum

  I nodded and his smile faded.

  “I’m sorry, but I saw your dream. Are you okay? How are you feeling now?”

  “It was so real. I could even smell the fingernail polish and acrylic solution they use. I thought it was really happening, and then the world swiveled a bit. That was when I realized that I was dreaming. But once everything started happening, I forgot about that all over, and it felt completely real again. When I saw her die,” I couldn’t finish my sentence as tears began to fall again.

  Aeric gently took both sides of my face in his large, strong hands and forced me to look at him. “It was only a dream. Rachel is safe and in the TV room passed out on the couch with Amanda. She’s perfectly safe. You’re probably nervous about going out with Sam.” I couldn’t help but notice how he forced himself to say his name. “And you may even subconsciously be worrying about the fact that you will be alone. You haven’t been without one of us in quite some time. But even so, I think that it would be best if we spoke to Sayen about this. I’m sorry, but I can’t lie and say I’m not a little worried about your date. I’ve watched a lot of bad things happen to you in the short time we’ve known each other, and I can’t stand to watch something else happen. So...”

  “If it will make you feel more at ease, we can talk to Sayen about it,” I interrupted.

  Before, when he brought up his hatred for me going out on the date, it irritated me and eventually set me off. But now, I could actually see the worry as he tiptoed around his words trying to express himself without hurting my feelings. Though it still bothered me that he still felt so strongly about it, it made me feel good that he cared enough to try again.

  “Thanks,” he said with a smile. “Are you feeling better now?”

  I nodded. “Thank you for being here for me. I don’t think I could’ve handled waking up like that alone. I’m sure that I would’ve figured it out, but since you were here, I don’t even want to think about it.”

  A warm smile crossed his face, and I couldn’t deny his beauty. He was flawless. I’d tried to ignore it, but it was difficult at best, if not impossible, to deny right then. He quickly leaned forward and lightly kissed my forehead and stopped. His lips rested there a moment as he inhaled deeply. His thumb lightly brushed the side of my face as he placed another soft kiss on my temple. It was the sweetest gesture that I’d ever been paid, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to happen. I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to stop, or if I wanted him to continue just to see what he would do next.

  “Aeric,” I said softly.

  His lips stopped near my cheek, and I could tell that he was about to kiss me again. Part of me was happy that I said something; the other part was cussing me relentlessly. He pulled away, but only enough that his nose rested against mine. I once again felt the pad of his thumb trail softly down my cheek and jaw line.

  “I’m sorry, Kailah. Please forgive me,” he said quietly.

  Something occurred to me, and I felt like I needed to say it. I remembered back to the fight the other day. I had accused him of something. At the time, I was only being petty and trying to make him mad, but right then, I wondered.

  “Aeric, the fight the other day,” I began.

  “Don’t ask something you really don't want to know the answer to,” he said.

  Though the light in the room was scarce, I could see something in his eyes that I hadn’t seen before.

  “I accused you of being jealous. I was only trying to be mean then, but, now,” I was searching for words.

  “If I answer that, it could change things,” he said. He was content with his statement, but a look of confusion crossed my face and he continued. “If I say no, then you may feel betrayed. If I say yes, then it could change things with you and Sam. If he really is the guy that you think he is, and I’m wrong, then it could ruin anything the two of you may potentially have.”

  “I just need to hear it for myself,” I said. My stomach was in knots. I wasn’t sure what he was about to say, but I knew whatever it was would bring both relief and sadness.

  “Were you jeal—” I was interrupted by his lips capturing mine.

  I immediately searched the world around me to make sure that I was, in fact, awake—or that I wasn’t having another vision. It was real. I was awake, and his lips were really pressed against mine. As soon as the reality of that hit me, I closed my eyes and fell into his kiss. His lips were soft and tasted very sweet. As good as he felt and tasted in my vision of him, it was nothing like the real thing. My fingers found their way into his long, dark hair as I pulled him closer to me. I felt him smile softly against me before he deepened the kiss.

  When it ended, I wasn’t sure if that kiss had lasted seconds or minutes, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was that it was over, and I felt lost without him. I wasn’t sure how to break the heat of the moment but I figured one of us should before it went any further.

  “You were totally jealous,” I said with a smile.

  He laughed, and the sound filled me with warmth. His laugh had always touched me, even in my darkest moments with him. Now, it completely surrounded me.

  “Yes, I was. I am. Maybe I’ll explain to you one of these days why I am the way I am. Why I could never let myself be with you.”

  My heart sank. He could never be with me? That kiss changed everything! He said that he worried his words would change things between us. If this was the result, why did he kiss me? How did I go from hating him to wanting him? He was right, I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to go out with Sam anymore, let alone be with him. I just wanted to pull Aeric back to me and feel close to him in any way we felt necessary.

  Aeric had been there to save my life, even when I hated him. And he was just there to save me from my dream, even though I said horrible things to him just a few days before. And now, he’d just given me the first real kiss I’d ever had. I’d kiss guys before, but no one has ever really kissed me with passion and desire. There was real want behind his kiss—I felt it. It was something I’d never felt from anyone before.

  “Why?” I asked. He smiled lightly, but it was a sad smile.

  “I lost someone very close to me years ago. I’ve never been able to forgive myself for it, and I vowed that I would never truly be with anyone else. I couldn’t let anything like that happen to anyone else ever again.”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Like I said, I may tell you about it one of these days, but now is not the time. I know that I should have let it go, but I just wanted to kiss you, even once. I hope you can forgive me for that.”

  “You’re forgiven. Trust me,” I said.

  He smiled once more before placing another small kiss on my forehead and walking away. My bed suddenly felt cold and lonely. He may have left my side, but he didn’t leave my mind. I quickly realized that I wasn’t allowed to truly think about things alone. Others always seem to have other plans.

  “You will never be good enough for him, you know,” I heard a woman say.

  I opened my eyes and looked to my left where I heard the sound coming from. On the end of my bed sat a beautiful woman with golden blonde hair. She had piercing blue eyes and delicate features. She wore a long white sundress. She sat there leaning her head slightly to the left as she inspected her nails.

  “Who are you?” I asked. I realized that I felt no fear, though something told me that woman wasn’t there for chitchat.

  “Oh, I’m Analynn,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m a ghost, in case you hadn’t figured it out. Woooo,” she waved her hands and laughed a little when she made the mock ghost noise. “I much prefer the word spirit, though. Ghost just seems so Halloweenish, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, I think so, too, and I gathered that much. Is there something that I can do for you?” I asked.

  Her casual demeanor bothered me. She acted very smug, like she was better than me.

  “Actually there is,” she said. Her icy blue eyes locked with mine and the room seemed to get a litt
le colder. “Stay away from Aeric.”

  My eyes widened a little bit, and I sat up more in bed. “Excuse me?” I said.

  “Aeric. You’ll never be good enough for him. That person he lost long ago? That was me. Khia killed me the night before Aeric was supposed to turn me. We were supposed to be married. Your kind disgusts me, and I will destroy you if you don’t listen to my warning.”

  “And how exactly do you plan to do that? And forgive me, but I’m sure he’s going to figure out something is amiss when he hears me talking to myself. You obviously know what he is, so you should also know that he has really good hearing.”

  “Ah sweet, sweet, innocent, Kailah. There is so much you don’t know!” she said with excitement as she smiled. Her smile almost made want to throw up. “There are all kinds of barriers, my dear. Since you know a lot about what you are, then you probably know your powers come from us, spirits.” I nodded. “Well I am a spirit, and my element is water. Water barriers are good for subtlety, or in this case, sound proofing the area enough so that Aeric’s Vampiric hearing is dwindled to nothing more than human hearing from outside this room. So, no dear, he can’t hear you talking to me.”

  “That’s interesting,” I said.

  “It is! It’s fantastic!” She was so bubbly and excited when she spoke. She reminded me of a teenager. “Do you know what else is fascinating to me?” I shook my head. “Water touches you. For some reason, you aren’t like other Immortals. Spirits flock to Immortals at the chance of being used for something, no matter how good or bad the Immortal is, as long as they temporarily feel important. Personally, I never saw the purpose. I mean really, how desperate could one be? Ugh, it’s disgusting.”

  She paused and crossed her legs while looking around the room. She began gently swinging the leg that was crossed over, and I started to lose my patience. I was talking to a vengeful, jealous spirit with ADHD. Fantastic. Could things get any more annoying?

  “And your point is?” I asked.

  “Oh! Yes, my point. Water touches you. Immortals touch every element equally, but only by using spirits. They can’t actually use the element itself, but for some reason, you don’t require a water using spirit to aid you in calling the element. It is fascinating and disgusting all at the same time.”

  Well, that was certainly interesting to know. “Why is it disgusting? Personally, I think it’s a good thing. Well, other than when I nearly crushed my sister’s hand.”

  “Oh, beautiful job with that one, by the way,” she said as she rolled her eyes. God, if I could hit her, I would. “It’s disgusting because it’s my element. It’s the most beneficial element out of the four. Water gives life, and it can take it away. It sustains all living things. For whatever reason, it chose you, even without the aid of a spirit. I’m surprised you hadn’t figured it out on your own.”

  “And just how would I have done that? I’m having a hard time with all of this. It’s harder than it looks. Besides, you have yet to regale me with your wonderful tale of how you plan on destroying me. I’m exhausted and morbidly curious to know.” My voice was flat and obviously bored.

  “My Lord, you truly are a stick in the mud. I mean no fun at all to talk to!” she said.

  She looked truly offended, like she couldn’t possibly believe that someone would find her energy exhausting and boring after a while. She just kept running around in circles.

  “I’m waiting,” I said flatly.

  “Oh, my, fine then!” She quickly rolled her eyes before continuing. My banter with her seemed to put a damper on her attitude quickly. “Haven’t you felt a connection with water? Like maybe water comforts you, or calms you, or maybe you have an affinity for sensing weather?”

  My eyes narrowed and I nodded slowly.

  “That was water reaching out to you! God, you truly are a daft woman.”

  “Thank you,” I said as a yawn took hold. “And you’re bubbly and annoying. So, now that we’ve met, get it all over with. I’m tired and have things to do tomorrow.”

  “Right!” she shrieked. She clapped her hands together once and suddenly wore an expression close to what a best friend would when finding out you were pregnant or getting married. “I would not want that to go badly! I mean, if it goes well, then you will be with, uh, Jim?”

  “Sam.”

  “Right! Sam!” she said with relief as she put a hand over her chest as a romantic look crossed her face. Seriously, where did this woman come from, and why was Aeric with her?

  “Sam. That is a good, strong name. So, you just continue on with him and leave my Aeric alone, or I’ll make sure that you can’t call the elements, thus ruining your future by killing you! ‘Kay?”

  Me: Confused look.

  “’Kay! You get some beauty rest!” she made a little bit of a disgusted face. “You’re probably going to need it. ‘Kay bye!” she said with an enthusiastic wave before standing and disappearing.

  “What –the –hell?” I asked myself.

  What a horrible bitch. I usually don’t call people names but, whoa. That was by far the worst person I’d ever met, and she was dead! I decided that until I figured out what was going on with her, I needed to keep my mind off of her in close proximity of Aeric, and I definitely didn’t need to tell him. I’d just have to remember not to focus on forgetting her, and if she popped into my head to let her linger in the background and not try to ‘la-la-la’ over her. I learned my lesson the last time.

  As I started to fall asleep again, I quickly shifted through what was going to happen that day. I wasn’t exactly sure how everything would go, but I was pretty sure that with a start like that, it was probably going to be bad. Maybe I should take Aeric’s advice and stay home after all. But hell, if I did that, I’d have an angry ex up my rear end. The day had no chance of going well at all.

  Chapter Ten

  I kept my promise to myself and refrained from mentioning anything about Analynn and all of her psychotic craziness. I also kept my promise to Aeric, and as soon as everyone was up and around, I went with him to talk to Sayen. Personally, I would have liked to have had Wendy there, too, but she had a day job. A day job that she keeps having to bail out of just to save my ass—literally.

  She was what they call a “gene jockey.” She was an insanely smart biologist, and she would take E. coli bacteria and reprogram it to produce insulin. Crazy right? I hope that when all the crazy life stuff was figured out for me, that I could have the patience to sit and become as smart as Wendy. That would be amazing! Maybe I could even be a doctor one day. Wendy inspired me. I hadn’t known her long, but I was very glad we met. Well, for more than just her playing “keep away” from Khia with my sister and me. That was just a given.

  “Kailah,” Sayen said. Her voice was calm and delicate as she smiled at me and took my hands. “My love, we’ve looked through the day. I don’t want to keep you from living your life. Even in all of this mess, you need a little time to yourself, or you will end up regretting and despising what you are and that could lead to bad choices. I need to try to balance things out for you as best as I can. I knew you wanted to see him, so I checked. I saw nothing but happiness for you. Your dream was nothing more than your stress coming through about your recent life changes, and your anxiety about what you were planning to do today. You and Rachel both had plans on going to the salon, so that just happened to be the place your dream chose.”

  “It just terrifies me. I’ve only seen Death once, but when I saw him in the dream he felt exactly the same.”

  Sayen’s face turned serious. I’d never seen worry on her face and it bothered me. “Death? You’ve seen Death? Are you positive? Was it just a Reaper, or was it actually Death?”

  “Yeah, pretty sure,” I couldn’t help the sarcastic tone but really, how do you mistake Death? “I’m not exactly sure of the differences between Death and a Reaper… I thought they were the same, but either way, that guy was unmistakable. Tall guy, about seven and a half feet tall, charcoal colored, smoky
eyes, cloak made from the souls of the evil immortal creatures of the world that hell wouldn’t accept upon their death? Yeah, pretty sure it was him.”

  “Oh, dear God, Kailah, why didn’t you tell me about this? I can’t see Death in my visions. He’s immune to us, so we are unable to see him. What did he do when you saw him before?” she asked. She leaned forward in her chair. I could tell she was badly stressing over that.

  “A patient of mine was dying, and he gave her soul to me and allowed me to save her.”

  Sayen’s eyes went wide. “Kailah, you are absolutely positive that is what happened?” I nodded. “Death despises all the immortal life of the world. To him, we are a slap in the face. He is neutral and cannot kill for vengeance or anger, nor can he save a life that was not meant to be saved. There are those who die for no reason quite often. A random killer’s impulse, or a car accident that was unforeseen. Every death is not planned and sometimes they just happen. Most unplanned deaths, however, occur because of immortal life. Vampires that kill for sustenance is the main problem, but another is because of Immortals killing innocents. That is why Death hates us. Other than his hatred for the fact that we are all immortal, and he can’t collect on our souls, just as we can’t see around him, he also can’t predict the deaths that we cause either. Death has never approached an Immortal, or any other immortal being, with intent to help.”

  “I don’t know. It was like I could feel him or something. He seemed… interested. He seemed infatuated with me or something. I’m not exactly sure why, but it was like he wanted to see if I could bring the woman back. He was testing me.”

  “I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. Having Death on your side could certainly come in handy. However, he could also have other plans for you. Be careful. Though he is a neutral spirit, he is still a dark spirit,” she said.

  “You just said that you can’t see around him in visions. I saw him in my dream last night. He was the one that told me about the death of the manicurist. Is it possible the reason you can’t see anything bad is because of him?” I asked.